I assume the translation/publication cost depends on which book is being translated?

of course -

What other systems are there to raise money besides crowd-funding?
Starting a nonprofit company and fundraising to "preserve and promote the Arts"?

that MIGHT work, but it is unlikely in this unspecific form. usually the concrete issue, in this case one particular book, raises the interest and subsequent payment into the funding pot.

Roughly how much money is needed to be raised to complete the whole process for one book?

that would of course entirely depend on the book. various factor play a role:
1) handwriting or print (the latter is cheaper to transcribe)
2) Print of the end product in a formal way or "nice layout" - the latter costs around 300 $
3) possible unforseeable issues with parts of the book - e.g. with Naturweg the printing of the symbols turned out to be a major stumbling block.
4) The amount of correction due to differing interpretations might make the process more cumbersome. If I myself translate a book I also decide when its ready for publishing. If a crowd decides that it could become a problem.
5) Finaly of course the sheer length is a determining factor.

If you aim at $ 15/h (a meager payment IMO) a book like the naturweg would end up costing roughly 2800$ if printed nicely, less if published formal and as ebook.

And is it best to have one translator working on a project, or more? How many is too many for one work?

that is a good question.
our group that has so far published "for money" 2 books and a few short texts for internal use, works with 3-5 people. One is the native speaker of the original who provides the raw translation and the transcript. then a native speaker of the target language does editorial work and finally several alchemy experts go over the interpretation of difficult or ambiguous parts as well as latin inserts etc.

its quite involved - in the end the text is formatted in a publishing software like adobe indesign and the front & back covers are designed.

LULU as the outlet provides ISBN for free so no worries there. If the number of patrons is known those books can be ordered bulk and are cheap (roughly 1/4 of the sales price).

I suppose I was thinking of people outside the alchemical community who want to make charitable donations for the tax breaks involved (at least in the USA).
But that might be on too grand a scale if the goal is just to translate one book that we forum members are interested in having an English translation of.

not at all, the software itself WILL of course allow for such "donations" and they always will be a major aim for those who "advertise" the project.
after some time is is conceivable that a database of wealthy donors exist who may be likely to input more than just the book price. But that will take time to evolve and will also depend on how good the idea as such is accepted. some may think it too progressive or even doubt the quality gained by this process.

to solicit unspecific donations, e.g. for no particular book will be inherently problematic. who decides which project gets the funds? Of course the operational costs of such a platform will have to be recoved too, but that is done thru a percentage out of the total project - at least thats how crowdfunding works in the "real" world.

Crowdfunding translations

I have been looking into the technical aspects of this and found a solution that would cost in its "simple" version 200$ and in the more elaborate version that allows for more (but IMO in our case unnecessary) options 500$. Both require a certain setup of the server which I already have in place so my guestimate is one or two workdays to set it up.

That is not too much, even if it fails to work in the long run and only practise will show how much administrative work the individual project will be.

I have a pet script, namely the "Die 7 heiligen Grundsaeulen der Ewigkeit - by AdaMah Booz" -the seven holy pilars of eternity- that I would propose to translate as a companion of the Naturweg and the 13 letters.

When Naturweg was first published I got (from a member of Adam Mcleans forum) a list of aliases under wich I.C.H. also wrote - and this was one of them.

I have already transcribed the book and published the transcription thru BoD in Germany. I believe it to be of quite some value to the researcher of the Fulcanelli/I.C.H. line.

Administrative Post

Hi Everyone,

This thread got quite derailed/off-track in relation to its original/intended topic, and gradually devolved into a crossfire and interpersonal feud, which started to reach personal levels and mutual accusations of an increasingly personal nature (whether 'founded in reality' or not - I don't know, nor do I really care).

So, the respective 'flaming' posts have been 'wholesale' archived for now, and, as/if time allows, posts/sections of a less personally offensive nature will be inserted into relevant threads, if/where such threads exist.

Not sure when this will happen, as the mods don't have all/every day to read/check everything that is posted and to manage various thread topics if/when they get derailed.

So, please continue here on the topic of crowdfunding translations, and leave the personal issues out, preferably focusing more on agreeing on a system/platform first, and only later discuss potential texts and translators. In other words, I would say: Let's build the foundations first, before we argue who decorates the penthouse and how.

PS: Please do not reply to this post, as it is an administrative 'intervention' and as such, not open to discussion.

If WORDPRESS, a free blogging software, is already present on the server the following CF software IMO offers the most bang for the buck. I am aware of a few free solutions who need a lot more nibbeling with the code to do what one wants - and that is a time factor. Given my amount of time I want to spend and the learning curve I would have to endure this is NOT an option for me, but may well be for someone with more programming skills and time at hand:

of those 3 options the middle one seems adequate. The cheap one does not supply membership options which I find essential, and the delivery of digital content could come in handy too. The ENTERPRISE version offers no real advantage for us IMO unless each and every person wanting a book translated also wants to learn how to manage such a crowdfunding endevor (which as I understand it is the job of the platform admin, and it is mainly what he gets paid for with his percentage of the cake).
In any case, should the need for the ENTERPRISE option arise an upgrade is always possible with little extra trouble.

As I said elsewhere I think a dedicated and independent operator is preferable to a group of operators and dedication to one group/forum for the aforemetioned reasons.
There are at least 3 big alchemy platforms who would likely participate if it is kept neutral. what I DONT want is to create a splitting of these precious resources and any real competiton in the very small field of alchemy should be avoided at all costs. It is hard enough to envision any kind of success as all those who have published in this field will confirm.

This software allows for (none free but mostly cheap) add-ons like facebook integration, additional payment platforms and such which is a great plus, as we cannot know what may become useful in the future. It also seems well established with a fairly good userbase, so it likely will not disappear overnight and the support along with it.

Also: "Themes" can be purchased, in the range of 50-100$ which support certain fields of intersts, like church donation, music distribution, social services to name a few. I may find one that fits our purpose better than the default delivered with the base package but havnt yet looked in depth.